You may have already heard that live chat software can increase conversion rates due to live chat platforms giving customers instant access to a support agent while they’re already visiting your site. If used correctly and as part of your overall customer service plan, live chat provides the potential for you to build customer loyalty and a base of devoted fans in order to improve conversions.
Just don’t get lulled into complacency by thinking you can simply put up a live chat icon and wait for the orders to come streaming in! While it’s true that live chat can be the ultimate sales hack for your organization, experiencing an increase in conversions may elude you if your live chat launch doesn’t include some of most important scientific and psychological elements necessary to become a successful live chat install. In fact, your organization could even experience a reduction in conversions if your live chat install is unsuccessful.
On average, only 2com% of website visitors convert to an inquiry or sale. This may be a surprising statistic to you, especially since the opportunity to buy goods or services is just a click away through most business websites.
In Recent Years
In the past, organizations used advertising to drive potential customers to a phone number, and that phone number was staffed by living, breathing human beings. Today, potential customers reach static web pages with loads of information about products and services, but potential customers don’t interact with a real human being when making decisions about whether to make a purchase.
Live chat is the answer to having real people available for your potential customers to interact with once they reach your website. When you or your others from your organization work on live chat, you should notice that between 10% and 50% of all your website visitors engage with you — and about a third of those visitors become a lead or a customer.
If your site already has a good conversion rate, then live chat won’t necessarily make your site’s conversion rate better. In fact, it could lower your conversion rate — depending upon how quickly potential customers can find the information they need on your site. In some cases, the information on a website can outperform the live chat feature offered. Proactive live chat can distract users away from the buying experience by seducing them into a conversation, so make sure to carefully evaluate whether live chat is right for your website before enacting a live chat feature.
If you’ve decided that live chat might be right for your website, implementing it can help prevent potential customers from leaving items in their shopping cart without making a purchase. Through live chat, you can learn why your customers are leaving items behind. For example, you can initiate a chat conversation when a customer is going back and forth between looking at two similar items. Through chat, your business can learn why this customer is having trouble making a decision about the purchase — is the shipping cost for one item too expensive, or do they need more information about what the item contains? Chat invitations can help you make a sale while learning more about what your customers need.
Once you can offer assistance to your customers when they’re on your website and you are able to deliver personalized customer service — you can be sure that your conversion rates will go up.
Author Bio:
Lance Waterly is a freelance writer and consultant. He enjoys writing about his experiences and giving advice to businesses testing and integrating new live chat software. In his free time, he takes his grandkids on long walks through their neighborhood.
Leave a Reply